The secret ingredient
by jojoangel01
Summary: Late at night, after having had another fight over her..very creative cooking, Ranma catches Akane in the kitchen, silently and almost reverently making... edible cookies? How in the world did that happen?


_I've wanted to write a Ranma/Akane fanfic for a very very long time simply because they are one of my most favorite couples ever but somehow I never quite managed it. I was never satisfied with what I wrote and this story took me quite some time to get to the point where I could accept the outcome. I hope it turned out fine, please share your thoughts. Love, Jojo_

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**The secret ingredient**

_By jojo_

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The young man walking on the fence sighed for the fifth time in the past two minutes. And for also the fifth time, he shot a short and subtle side-gaze down towards the girl who was walking a few steps ahead of him on the road. She held her bag to her front tightly with both hands and her head was slightly turned upwards and away from him, avoiding meeting his countenance and obviously refusing to take notice of his existence. In short, it was more than obvious that she was still mad, he would even dare say furious, at him.

He cursed. And the morning had started out so nicely. He had come down for breakfast as usual and had sat next to Akane, thinking of nothing bad, only looking forward to Kasumi's good food. And then, all of a sudden and out of nowhere, his fiancée announced that she had cooked breakfast for them all. His horror was immediately mirrored in the faces of every person around the table but Akane didn't notice any of this for she was still too busy beaming happily at them with her big smile, eyes closed in supreme satisfaction.

She quickly disappeared in the kitchen to get the plates with something on it she actually called food. Unsurprisingly for everybody who knew the tomboy fiancée of his, food was one of the last terms Ranma would have used to describe the brownish slime-paste on the plates that Akane carried that she ironically decorated with the half of a tomato to make it visually more appealing. No need to mention that the poor girl didn't quite succeed.

Horrified, Ranma would have tried to sneak out of the living room like the others while Akane still "worked" in the kitchen but his father wouldn't have any of that.

"I don't think so!" Said a wooden sign that Saotome Genma, currently Mister Panda, held up while grabbing his son's collar with his other paw.

"Wargh!" Ranma struggled with all his might. "Let me go!"

"It's your duty to eat the cooking of your future wife!" Said the sign conveniently as the panda turned it around.

"What are you talking about!" Ranma screamed at him. "You know as well as I do that her so called cooking is not edible, toxic at best. You just hope that I die and you won't have to eat any."

While Genma was still writing his reply on one of his trademark signs, Akane started gloating from the doorway right behind Ranma. He sensed her more than heard her enter and immediately a cold shiver caused by a strong sense of foreboding ran down his spine. The hair on his arms stood proud and tall in alert and he immediately knew that she had heard him. The pigtailed boy didn't even manage to turn around and face her for he was already flying through the roof.

The result? A growling stomach, a slight headache, the ringing in his ears and a guilty feeling in the guts. Although he had somehow returned just in time to grab his school-bag and hurry after her to school.

The guilt, at least, was quickly overshadowed by something that a Saotome Ranma could easier deal with. Anger.

'Why had she tried to cook again, anyway? She knows exactly that she is no good in the kitchen, lethal the best. I swear, I'll never understand that stupid tomboy. Getting mad at me just because I stated the obvious! Would she rather I eat her food and die? Honestly, what is she thinking... Jeez!'

But all his attempts to be angry didn't last for long, like they never did since their last, fateful visit to China. Not that he would ever admit any of it out loud, but Ranma truly hated it when she was seriously mad at him. He always had before but even more so after Jusenkyo.

For reasons that he tried not to think about the boy had even begun trying very hard not to fight with her too much, especially when they were alone. And it seemed to work. They actually had a pretty relaxed rela...friendship at the moment and got along just fine. Unless of course their parents were in their faces trying to get them marries and thus causing them to resort to old habits. Or Akane trying cooking... which invariably ended up in Akane being mad at him no matter what.

Ok, so maybe he should be used to it by now but…he just was not and he couldn't help the guilt that slowly crawled back knowing she was upset.

Ranma sighed. He knew he had hurt her and that he had to apologize, one way or another. It would be best to get it over with before school started. Might as well spare him the embarrassment for he really didn't want to have to have this kind of conversation with her in front of the crazy horde that inevitably was the population of Furinkan High.

The boy easily jumped down from the fence, noting that she hadn't acknowledged his presence one bit and kept walking a little behind her while trying to gather his courage. At some point, the spreading feeling of ridiculousness inside his stomach took the better of him and he just jumped in front of her, effectively stopping the girl from walking on.

Akane looked at him with narrowed eyes, waiting with remarkable patience for whatever he had to say. Ranma gulped soundlessly but bravely opened his mouth to speak as a sudden ringing made him stop. One and a half second later he had a bike in his face and the well known pain that always accompanied it rapidly increasing.

"Airen!" Shampoo screamed, jumping off her bike to give Ranma a bear-hug. Her target fell backwards on the hard ground with a loud thud and immediately started struggling.

"Get off me!"

Akane only huffed loudly and turned away from the pitiful picture. The girl had witnessed this scenes one too many times and today she really was not in the mood.

She continued walking ahead without another word. Ranma extended a hand out for her, desiring her help screaming her name a few times but even if she had heard him she didn't respond in any way.

The martial artist sighed miserably; his hand lowered to the ground lifelessly and he stopped moving all together, resigning to his fate. Why him? Why did those kind of things always have to happen to him? He couldn't think of anything that he had ever done to annoy the gods this much…

'Must have been something that that stupid no-good father of mine botched up.'

As Shampoo noticed that her "husband" was not moving anymore, she pulled away to check on him, wondering if she had accidentally squeezed the life out of him. Before she could revel in the fact that he was, indeed, still alive, the always alert young martial artist seized the opening and quickly made his exit, dashing after Akane and managing to pass through the school gates a second before they closed, leaving a stunned Chinese girl and a cursing and screaming headmaster behind.

---

It was seriously too obvious and not only to him: Akane was avoiding him, really avoiding him, even fiercer than usual. She was _really_ mad at him this time and he knew his only chance, if he was fond of his limbs-which he truly was, would be to wait until she had cooled down a little before apologizing.

After school he searched everywhere for her but she was nowhere to be seen. A friend of hers then told him that she had gone home right after the bell had rung. Confused and hurt, Ranma thanked the girl and started walking home slowly.

He was cursing under his breath, knowing that he had messed up big time. A huge insult to her cooking skills AND Shampoo in one morning was simply too much after their fateful trip to China not too long ago which had brought them so much closer in many different ways. He knew his insults hurt her...

But still, what did she think, just going home without him? That hardly ever happened and although they had never come to an outspoken agreement, it was just something both always did together.

Grumpily and against his will, the boy had to admit that it felt different, having to walk home alone and he didn't like it one bit. He refused to think further along these lines for his heart had started to interfere with the conversation going on in the back of his head. Ranma sighed and went through a few apology-strategies in his mind, sent a quick prayer to the heavens and generally wished with all his might for good luck, knowing he could every ounce of help in this battle that he could get.

---

When he passed through the door of the Tendo household, the first thing he noticed was that it was unusually quiet. Only Kasumi was working in the kitchen. Ranma entered and greeted her.

"Where is everybody?" He asked her cautiously, not sure if he really wanted to know the answer.

"Dad and Mister Saotome are out for a drink but will return for dinner, Nabiki is still out on some business and Akane is in her room." She smiled at him sweetly, like she usually did but this smile held a small, knowing spark in her eyes.

Ranma blushed slightly and looked away. He excused himself, meaning to go through some katas before dinner in the hope of distracting himself from too many confusing thoughts.

---

Dinner passed fairly normally, a fact that Ranma was grateful for. The only change was that Akane, although she was sitting next to him as usual, was trying her best to ignore him completely. The other people at the table noticed this but it was Akane's icy-look that made them keep their mouths shut. They had, after all, also not eaten her food that morning so they didn't dare infuriate her even more in case she turned on them.

After dinner, Akane disappeared in her room and Ranma went to practice some more with his father, resulting in a gender change and several new holes in the dojo he'd have to repair the next day.

He seized the opportunity when his father was invited by Mister Tendo to a new round of Go and made his exit. He waited quietly on the roof for his courage to strike him and it was half an hour later that he actually managed to lightly tap on her window.

He waited again patiently and when nothing happened, knocked again, a little louder than before. When again nothing happened, he tried opening her window and found it unlocked.

"Akane?" Entering the dark room softly, he called out for her again but received no answer.

All of a sudden, he heard the front door open and close and instinctively turned to look out of the window. Akane, wearing her jogging clothes, had just turned around the corner and was running down the street.

'_Strange…'_ Ranma thought. _'She usually goes jogging in the morning or after dinner. Or sometimes when she has a lot to think about…'_

He looked after her in confusion, wondering if she was all right as an open book on top of her desk caught his attention. He didn't mean to read it but something drew his eye to it…

---

It was late night in the Tendo house. Everything was quiet as it always was at this time of the day, or night to be precise. Yet, _this_ night was slightly different and only those who bothered to look closer could tell the difference.

There was still light burning in the kitchen and when Ranma awoke after an uneasy and short slumber, he decided to get a glass of milk. He tiptoed down the stairs when he suddenly noticed said soft light.

He carefully followed it, not excluding the possibility of thieves or some other crazy people that he obviously seemed to attract. Alerted and ready to fight, he slowly peeked around the corner and as he saw Akane hovering over some pots, he exhaled a deep breath of relief.

"Oh Akane!"

The girl jerked slightly at her name and spun around to see Ranma standing at the doorway, one hand clutching her heart in order to keep it from jumping out of her chest.

"God, Ranma, you scared me to death!" She hissed at him, not meaning to wake the whole house.

"You're one to talk." He hissed back, more out of habit than actual anger.

Akane looked at him for another moment before her cheeks painted a faint pink, then she turned back. "What are you doing awake anyway?" She asked him with normal, only slighter lower, voice.

"I was about to ask you the same thing."

"I asked first." Was her only answer as she started stirring something in a bowl.

"Well, I couldn't sleep." He stated. "You?"

"Me neither." She stated just as matter of factly.

Ranma waited for more, wanting to know what exactly she was doing but that was all the answer that she gave him. Only the stirring sound could be heard in the dim kitchen that was merely illuminated by one light. He shifted from one foot to the other at the doorway, wishing she would break the silence but nothing happened. She only continued to silently stir, looking almost peaceful and reverent. But soon enough, Ranma had had enough of the anxious waiting and the tense silence and approached the girl.

"Look Akane, I've been meaning to say this all day. I am sorry that I insulted your cooki- A-Akane, are you cooking??" His apologetically voice turned disbelieving as he already started to back away unconsciously.

She only nodded, still not looking at him and only now Ranma noticed the smell that hang in the kitchen. To his surprise and the reason why he hadn't immediately noticed it, he recognized it as the scent of cookies and not of burnt something. Actually it was more of a nice scent than the nasty smell he had expected.

Confused, he approached her further and looked over her shoulder cautiously. A plate to her left was filled with some cookies that, granted, didn't look like the most beautiful ones he had ever seen but that weren't black either nor did they smell toxic.

Pressed to her bosom with one arm, she held a bowl in which she almost cautiously stirred something with her free hand that was holding a big, wooden spoon.

This was one scene Ranma never thought he'd ever witness. And, as so many times before, he started talking without thinking, before he could even think about stopping his ever present big mouth.

"Don't tell me you did those yourself!?" He exclaimed and immediately moved a hand up to cover his mouth before his other moved a second later to shelter himself from the beating he knew he would get for sure.

No need to mention that he was more than shocked when nothing happened. Akane simply kept looking at her paste with a passive expression and never stilled the stirring. Ranma blinked confused. Akane was freaking him out, okay, no news there but this time felt different and her next words only proved him right.

"Ranma, if you are here to insult me further you can just as well go back to bed. I'd like to finish these in peace."

All right, now Ranma was positive that she had lost her mind. This was Akane we are talking about and Akane never reacts this calmly. Akane never leaves out a chance for a fight, Akane never sends him back to bed peacefully and Akane did not stand in the kitchen in the middle of the night to quietly make cookies that maybe were even edible. Something majorly weird was going on here.

"A-Akane, I don't understand?" His arms hanging uselessly at his sides, Ranma looked puzzled, almost lost at her as if somebody had turned his world upside down. Meaning even more upside down than it already was but that was not the point.

"Didn't you want anything from the kitchen?" She still did not bother to look at him.

It was as if Ranma was glued to the spot. This whole situation was creeping him out more and more with each passing second. However, he remembered what he actually wanted to tell her so he tried again. After all, Akane being angry at him or showing him the chills was not something Ranma could live with for very long these days.

"Right, I wanted milk…b-but Akane, about before…I am sorry about this morning…" He looked entranced at her hands that were still working, then at her concentrated expression. Never before had he seen her work with this kind of serious determination **and** concentration in the kitchen.

"It's all right, Ranma. I tried it myself, it really was not edible. You were right." There were definitely traces of hurt in her voice although she tried to downplay them. But Ranma knew her well enough to not be fooled that easily. Although he knew that she was hurting to say those words he had no idea how to deal with them, or her.

'_And since when is Akane agreeing with me on her cooking? This is more than weird.' _

Still, Ranma felt bad for her so he tried his best to cheer her up a little what ended as a clumsy attempt to be nice. He put his hands awkwardly behind his head and looked at the wall in front of them.

"Y-you know, maybe it was not that bad…I am sure that if one tried hard then…then…" Something inside him held Ranma back from finishing this sentence. He knew that it was not true.

"You know that's not true." Akane turned lightly to look at him with a side-gaze.

He opened his mouth to reply but nothing came out so he closed it again and looked at the ground.

Silence engulfed them once again. Akane had long ago went back to quietly stirring her paste. This was another thing that Ranma could not easily deal with. Akane's silence. When Akane was silent it almost never meant a good thing so he decided the best that he could do was to break through the heavy and unnerving tension that hung in the room.

"Are…are those going to be cookies as well?" He asked, looking at her bowl.

Akane only nodded and bit the inside of her lower lip.

Ranma hesitated but he knew he could not let it stand like this and he was curious as well. So he just spoke what was on his mind without thinking about the possible consequences, again.

"How come you get up in the middle of the night to…make cookies?"

Akane turned her head away from him, stirring her paste but did not answer. Ranma blinked confused at the girl in front of him, waiting a few more moments before stepping a little closer.

"Akane?" Her name on his lips was almost nudging her to spill it since he really wanted to know her answer.

Slowly and obviously hesitating, she turned to look at the bowl in her hands again and just when he thought he'd never get his answer, Akane spoke up softly, her gaze glued to her bowl.

"I found a simple enough recipe in one of my mothers' cooking books and a few sentences that encouraged me to try again, that's all."

Ranma stared at her, not knowing how to deal with this answer that he had seriously not counted with, at all. He felt a knot form in his throat for a certain reason and opened his mouth again, even raised an index finger but nothing came out of his mouth so he closed it again and lowered his hand back to his side. Akane was the first to speak up again.

"Do you want to try one?" Her eyes met his for the first time, spearing into Ranma's with an open vulnerability that left him speechless. He didn't know how he was supposed to deny her anything when she was looking at him like this.

Not knowing why or how, his body betrayed him, managing a nod while never breaking the heated eye-contact even though his stomach immediately began protesting. He saw something spark in her eyes and her face relaxing the tiniest bit. Placing the bowl down with a dull sound, she reached over and took one of the cookies, handing it to him.

He slowly raised a hand to take it and didn't realize that it was shaking just as hers was. Akane did realize. A cold shiver ran down her spine but she said nothing. She only held the cookie out for him and lowered her hand when he took it. Their eyes never broke the contact.

Akane's heart was beating in record time in anticipation while Ranma's was beating strongly although he didn't know whether it was out of fear to eat what he had in his hand or because of something completely different that he really could not think about at the moment. So he stuck to fear.

'_But I deserve this.'_ He told himself as he broke the eye contact and looked down at the cookie in his hand. Somehow he knew there was no way he would get out of this without really messing up although this probably meant his death.

That's why he took a deep breath, steeling his nerves, and stomach, for this adventure that lay ahead of him and slowly brought the cookie to his mouth. He closed his eyes, his face distorted even before it made contact and bit down.

Akane's eyes widened and her hands moved up to cover her mouth in order to stifle her silent gasp. Then Ranma's eyes snapped open in shock. He started chewing testingly until the whole cookie was gone and he was still standing.

"Oh my god, this is…this is…" He couldn't find a word to describe himself but he was trying, his hands gesturing around him as if hoping for some help. Akane was staring at him with raised eye-brows, every muscle in her tense in unbearable expectation.

"Not bad!!" He finished rather lamely some time later. At her slight frown he corrected himself quickly. "I mean, really. It's edible, even tasty. How did you do that? Are you sure you made those?" He noticed only after he had finished speaking that these were maybe not the words she wanted to hear and already started fearing about his physical well-being when he noticed that she was smiling at him with shining eyes and shy expression.

Akane was looking down at the hands that she had folded at her front on top of her apron, the shy smile on her lips present and she nodded slightly. "Yes, I made them all by myself."

"Oh wow, Akane…" He raised his eye-brows. "I mean…I don't know what to say…" Ranma almost apologized but judging from the expression on Akane's face he could not have made her a bigger compliment. So maybe they were not the best cookies he had ever eaten but they were not that bad, good edible and the best thing Akane had ever produced, aside from the one time she used the water of life. Ranma almost asked her about it but then remembered that the spring had dried up.

She slowly, tentatively reached for a hand full of cookies and gave them to Ranma. This time he did not hesitate too much to take them from her and he hopped up on the counter to eat slowly. Without a work spoken between them, Akane walked over to the fridge to pour him a glass of milk that she then handed him. He thanked her with a big smile and went on eating almost delightfully.

She sat down on a nearby chair and continued to watch him eat her cookies without distorting his face and that alone was something so special to her she could not tear her gaze away from the picture. Her smile never faded.

When Ranma was finished, he smiled at her because he could not help himself. Not only did he somehow feel satisfied from the inside but her smiling at him in this certain way was simply compelling him to smile back. He guessed that nobody, including her, knew that it was her pretty and genuine smile coming from the depths of her heart that had him in her spell. That would hound him in his dreams and accompany him wherever he was.

"Was it only the new recipe that…changed your cooking?" He asked slowly, meaning to break the silence between them although it was not at all tense anymore.

She nodded shyly. "Yes, that and a sentence that had me thinking."

"A sentence?" Ranma asked, seeing Akane nod again. "What kind of sentence?"

"It was about cooking and about what's most important…that kind of things."

To her surprise, Ranma did not ask further. A different question was busying him. "I thought you gave up cooking with your mother's notebook?"

"Yes, that one time when I've been so frustrated because of the dinner I didn't do quite well…" She fell silent and both knew that that was a huge understatement. "But after I came home from school, I found the notebook on my desk, open. I assume Kasumi had her hands in this but she didn't say anything. I read it again more carefully than last time and at first I was confused but then I thought about it and decided to give it a shot."

"And you did that at night so that…"

"…nobody will see if I fail again." She nodded to verify his guess, avoiding his eyes.

"I see…" Ranma said pensively. Akane, who noticed the change of mood looked at him with tilted head.

"Everything all right?" She was frightened that her cookies may had some side-effects after all but he only nodded his head slowly and looked at the ground while obviously thinking very hard about something.

She was wondering about his behaviour but little could she know that a full-grown battle was going on inside his head. He was struggling, debating with himself whether or not he should tell her what was burning on the tip of his tongue.

"Ranma?" Akane was really starting to worry about the boy who was still sitting on the counter.

At the sound of his name tumbling from her lips, Ranma sprang back to life. Literally. He hopped off the counter and now stood a few feet away from her, staring at the surprised girl intensely.

"Akane…" He tried to find the right words. Her name was a start, after all.

"Yeah?" She asked, not sure if his expression meant she was to be afraid.

"I know what was written on that page…" He said quickly, wanting to get this part over with.

"W-what?" Akane backed away the tiniest bit. "How…?" She asked petrified as comprehension dawned and was quickly consumed by horror.

Ranma shook his head. "That's not important. What's important is that I want to know who you were thinking of while making those cookies."

"R-Ranma…" Akane was dumbfound, shocked to be precise. Had he any idea what he was asking of her?

What Akane did not know, was that Ranma had seen the open notebook this afternoon, while she was out jogging. He had seen, just as she had, the page her mother had written down very carefully, with the words that encouraged her to try again. Words that were now causing his jealousy.

Next to the recipe for the simple cookies, her mother had written down in pink ink:

"_But, the __most important rule when cooking, next to concentrating hard on your task, is that whatever you do or whatever you cook, it must be done with all your love. Concentrate hard on the person you are cooking for and your love for that person. Then everything you do will succeed for sure."_

She had ended the entry with a little pink heart. Akane had taken some time to think about her mother's words but after a long afternoon walk had decided to give it a shot.

And this was what Ranma had read as well? She could feel the heat racing to her face and knew she must be even redder than his favourite Chinese shirt.

"A-Akane, I am serious…" He tried to make his position clear, stepping closer to her. "Please, I just…need to know." The desperate boy pleaded her, something that hardly ever happened but he couldn't help it. He needed to know. The nasty, jealous feeling in his stomach demanded to know the truth. Demanded to know if there was somebody else Akane loved that much that her cookies had become edible.

Who was she thinking of while cooking with love?

He saw her miserable gaze that soon travelled south, her closed eyes robbing her brown orbs from his view. No matter how much Akane wished she could tell him, it was endlessly difficult for her and everything was happening too suddenly. She knew she was not ready to tell him how she felt. It was too sudden, too much had happened and she wasn't prepared to deal with this, deal with the inevitable consequences to her confession.

Slowly she raised her head to meet his waiting and anxious eyes. With her look she pleaded for him to understand her, to somehow see the answer in her eyes were it was clearly displayed all along and not push her to say it just yet. He gulped but somehow understood. This was one of the rare times that he knew almost exactly what she was thinking and feeling. Except for one thing, the most important thing and although he didn't want to push he still needed some kind of reassurance.

With a surge of braveness, Ranma steeled his nerves one last time for this last question and possible answer of hers before he spoke softly.

"At least, tell me one thing…do I…do I have to worry?" His vulnerable gaze locked to hers and she couldn't remember a time when his cheeks have been this red. "Do I have to be jealous?" The last sentence was but a mere whisper and it tore at her heart.

Akane, who was incredibly surprised he'd ask something like that, felt her eyes widen and her heart start beating even faster. Had he just…?

A fierce battle between her mind and heart was going on inside her, tearing at her. She didn't know what to do, what to say, how much she could dare tell him or… But what if she… and what if he… and how could he not know what she was feeling when she felt like her emotions for him were portrayed clearly on her face when she let her guard down?

Only after this question had left his lips, Ranma had realized what he was actually asking her. And more, what exactly he had just admitted. Never had his head felt this hot or his heart pounded this painfully and already he was searching for an apology, for some way out of this or reversing his words as not to embarrass himself when he saw it…

After what felt like an eternity, it was the most beautiful sight Ranma had ever witnessed when Akane, his Akane, with her beautiful red cheeks, shyly and very slowly, shook her head. It was not much but it was enough for him. More than enough. It told him everything he needed to know. Immediately a huge smile spread on Ranma's face while unbelievable relief flooded through his system.

He looked at his feet, pleased to the core, his silly smile still present. Out of nowhere, he addressed her again with gentle voice, feeling the need to do something for her.

"Want to watch a movie? You can do the remaining cookies tomorrow, can't you? For breakfast maybe?"

Akane's heart jumped. She smiled back, her cheeks still red but the silly grin still on. "Yeah."

Smiling even wider, he took the plate with the cookies in one hand and Akane's hand in the other. He dragged her after him to the living room where he placed the cookies on the table and sat down on his usual spot. Smiling up at the girl, he saw her return the smile and sit down next to him, taking her usual seat as well.

He reached under the table to take out a blanket which he then threw over both their shoulders to fend off the chilly night. The movement was slow, tentative, shy, always leaving her enough time to stop him. She never did.

Akane was zapping through the channels, searching for anything they could watch. The best thing she could find was a documentary movie. She looked at Ranma in question.

"Fine with me." He told her quietly and reached for a cookie that he gave her.

With a shy smile of her own, Akane raised a hand to take the cookie from his hand and ate it. She grinned at him and watched his lips curve to his trademark grin that was so uniquely him.

She kept watching him eat which, most of the time, was more interesting to her than the movie itself. Too big, she felt, was the miracle that had made her cookies good enough for Ranma to eat. That's all she had ever wanted in the first place. Silently, she thanked her mother. The overly wise woman who had even managed to give a _name_ to this miracle even without being there. Love.

Too soon, the few cookies that had been left were nearly gone. But neither complained. Only one was left and both, Ranma and Akane, reached out for it at the exact same time. Their hands touched and their heads jerked up at the contact, looking at each other in shock.

However, the tension that had quickly built was destroyed by her slight smile to which he responded with a relieved one. This relief made him light headed and he took her petit hand firmly in his, intertwining their fingers and disappearing them into the warmth of the blanket, keeping their joined hands between their bodies. Using his left hand, he took the cookie and placed it directly at her lips.

Akane smiled at him, cheeks pinker than before, but accepted his offer and ate the cookie.

After she was done with it, she gave him a last, grateful smile before her head dropped onto his shoulder. Ranma blushed as well but was feeling way too content to move or even think about protesting. Instead, he lay his head on top of hers gently, their joined hands still trapped between them and with his free hand he pulled the blanket close at the front and tighter around them, intending to keep them both inside its cocoon of warmth.

They went back to watching their movie, listening to the singing of the whales in the television while sleep was slowly creeping over them. When Akane yawned, Ranma smiled again. He seemed to be doing this a lot tonight.

"You tired?" He asked her quietly as not to disturb the peaceful silence.

"Yeah…I don't wanna move, though. But Ranma, we can't…"

"Don't worry." Ranma said, knowing what she was about to say. "I'll wake us up really early in the morning so they won't catch us, promise."

Her hand tightened a little in his and she smiled, nodding before resting her head a little higher up his shoulder. Ranma lifted his for an instance to let her get comfortable before he rested it back on top of hers.

"Okay." She sighed out, cuddling against his side.

The trust she was putting in him, even after all the times they fought and argued, never ceased to amaze him and he couldn't imagine how he could ever feel more content than at this moment.

The scene they presented was radiating love and innocence to everybody who looked as the two usually stubborn and fierce young people let their guards down for one night. Both could feel the change that had taken place tonight but they were determined to deal with it at a later moment.

And both were silently thanking a wise woman who had not only given birth to the short-haired, passionate young woman Ranma was snuggled against but who had also helped them to get a little bit closer. Helped them more than anybody had and for that, they were most grateful.


End file.
